Daily News From Hades
by onewing
Summary: Narcissus decides to speak from the dead.


Notes: Of course, don't own, though I actually adore this myth a lot. This was a little assignment for a class, and I thought I might as well share it. Hope you enjoy.

Daily News From Hades

I am rather old now.

Though one wouldn't know by looking, I certainly know I don't look like it.

I haven't seen a mirror in a few decades; such luxuries have been forgotten as I sit in the dark. It feels as if no time has passed, as if nothing has changed. Even when I know the very world has.

How I know this, is hard to say. It might be a trait that all dead souls have. Those who pass through Hades' gates gain much when they lose everything. Such as the ability to feel Gaia, mother of gods and men, even as she turns. All for just the price of freedom.

I wish I could see the sun… It's been so long, longer than decades, longer than millennia. When I came here, the world was still young, but perhaps that was just me, for I was young then, and beautiful.

Still beautiful, I can feel that as I trace my finger tips over my features. Soft, smooth skin, unscarred, untouched, never to be touched but by me. That was what I wanted after all.

My nose is still shaped perfectly, my eyes still wide with youth, my lips still full. I imagine they're still the color of pink shells, enticing as Aphrodite had gifted me with.

Never to be kissed, never to kiss.

That is what I wanted, because I belong only to myself and want only myself.

In my youth, I had been something of a trouble to my parents, to society, though I was well known for my looks. Never my mind or my hunting skills, though I have to say I was rather clever, and I could almost beat Artemis in aim.

If I wasn't dead, she'd likely punish me by now for that little thought, but I am and not a thing can touch me, unless Hades himself wishes to interrupt his judgment of me. Likely not to happen, hasn't happened in all this time.

Though, maybe he'll get bored of his wife someday and go peek in on the prisoners of this place….

Never mind, that wouldn't happen if Gaia broke in half.

Then the underworld would be exposed, and maybe I'd see sun. Though, with my luck, no.

I'm not a very lucky person. Greek myth can give you that.

Considering my entire story is basically that I spurned someone, be it Ameinias or that nymph Echo, and no, I'm not telling anyone which it really was, since it was so amusing to listen to those philosophers figure it out. As is, it is that I rejected one or the other's advances, and they died because of it, while cursing me into the condition that ultimately killed me.

However, it might have been a preexisting condition. No one has ever considered that.

You see, I always had a fondness for mirrors. I knew I was beautiful, I know I'm beautiful. I doubt Adonis could beat me now or then, had we ever met.

I just didn't have his luck in bedding two goddesses. But as I said, I have no luck.

That was the real reason why I was such a trouble to my parents and community; I spent more times admiring myself than I did hunting or going about the town. So really, the reason I'm not known for those, is my own fault.

I have my flaws inside, despite the perfection without. I'm not humble; I'm not willing to be. I have no empathy towards my other fellow mortal men, or any gods. I never did my offerings right or my prayers, I attributed everything I was to myself, as if I had made myself perfect.

I have accepted that a long time ago, among other things.

You get to accept a lot in the underworld, that is what punishment is for. You have to think about what you did, and why you did it.

And supposedly be regretful…

That might take a few more centuries. Hasn't happened yet, I'm supposed to let the guard know when it does.

Now, to clarify, I do regret that other people have died for my vanity. I'm flattered too, immensely.

What better way to prove you're gorgeous beyond reality than having other people die because they cannot possess it or you? There's not one, I can tell you that from experience.

That is what is keeping me here in the darkness. That is my burden, and what I am paying for. It is what killed me, staring into my own reflection in the water of that cursed pool and seeing that utter awe inspiring image. Yet, I didn't fall in love with it then, I was already in love with myself before that. It wasn't as if I've never seen my own image before, which would be utterly ridicules. Even if mirrors hadn't exist in that time, there were other pools in the forest, other reflective surfaces.

I obviously managed to survive to my sixteenth year according to myths.

So why that pool? It's really a stupid little tale; I'm not too fond of confessing it. No, I did not starve myself to death while laying at the side of it, or take my sword and plunge it through my chest in agony for never being able to touch the other in the reflection. No, I stupidly drowned myself.

I wasn't trying to kiss it either.

Can't believe what those old fools thought. Who would kiss water from a pool, in the middle of the forest? Who knows what could have been on the surface of that thing, besides moss?

Makes me sick to think of it now…

As is, as I said, I died by drowning. I was leaning in to get a better look at myself and oddly thought I saw a wrinkle at the corner of one eye. It so startled me that I just lost my balance and fell in. I had armor on that day, a thick chest plate and boots, and unlike later times, these things were really thick. I sank like a stone.

Thus the tale of my tragic, untimely and moronic death. I should have known better, there was no way my brilliant face could get a wrinkle, certainly not at sixteen.

And that's all of me, while I wait in the dark to find repentance for being who I am and what I am. It doesn't look like its coming.

I still admire myself; I still admire every perfect thing about myself. There's not a single flaw, not a lack of breathtaking wonder. Nothing about me is imperfect, nothing ever will be imperfect. They can take my ability to see myself, they can take the mirrors, Hades can have my eyes if he so wishes to pluck them out himself.

But I know, and will forever know that I am the ultimate creation of man.

For I am Narcissus.

* * *


End file.
